Marx Halle: Digital Boost with 10,000 Mbit

Built by Viennese architect Rudolf Frey in 1881 as a hall for cattle auctions at the St. Marx central livestock market, 140 years later the Marx Halle is at the heart of the Neu Marx urban development zone. With a footprint of 20,000 square meters arranged as four separate – and heated – studios, it has all the space organizers could wish for when it comes to hosting meetings and congresses, as well as cultural events and shows. And to make sure that it can live up to all of the demands placed on it and meet a huge variety of briefs, the location has been investing heavily in IT. In a joint project, its owners HEY-U media group, city of Vienna company Wien Holding and network operator Magenta have been hard at work turning the Marx Halle into the "fastest event hall in Austria". The ambitious undertaking is also another major milestone on Vienna’s digitalization path.

The recent upgrades have delivered access to speeds of up to 10,000 Mbit/s – approximately 100 times the previous rate. Achieving this involved the installation of 14 network nodes, 68 W-LAN access points, 172 data points, 2.2 kilometers of fiber optic cabling and a further 8.5 kilometers of copper network cabling in the heritage-listed building. During the process, special attention was paid to the historic steel frame – the wrought iron construction was the first in Vienna and the only one that survives to this day – and ensuring that no holes were drilled in it or any other modifications made.

In future, event organizers, participants and visitors will have access to fast WiFi, high-performance wired connections and a whole host of flexible solutions as far as bandwidth management is concerned. Various network and internet bundles can be selected to suit the needs of the particular event.